Energy data startup Urjanet ups capital raise to $6.5M

An energy data software startup has boosted the size of planned capital raise by more than 60 percent.

Urjanet inc., which bills itself as the “Bloomberg for energy data,” seeks to raise $ 6.5 million, up from $4 million it raised in September, according to a Securities & Exchange Commission filing.

So far, Urjanet has secured about $6 million from Vienna, Va.-based Grotech Ventures and existing investors, including Imlay Investments Inc. and the Georgia Research Alliance, according to an amended Form D filing.

Urjanet, backed by former Southern Co. CEO David Ratcliffe, provides large companies an automated service to help lower energy costs, reduce carbon footprint and evaluate long-term energy investments.

The Georgia Tech spinoff is one of several startups in Atlanta’s blossoming clean tech sector. Metro Atlanta has more than 43,000 people working in clean tech and sustainability jobs, according to The Brookings Institution’s Sizing the Clean Economy study.

Energy management is a major expense for large companies. Of Urjanet’s dozen customers, two spend more than $1 billion on energy spend annually.

Urjanet’s customers are large corporations and federal, state and local agencies that spend millions annually on electricity and natural gas, and have multiple business locations. Urjanet connects to and delivers data directly to industry business information systems and energy management applications.

Rapid emergence of the Smart Grid and movement of utilities to data-oriented infrastructure helps Urjanet do what it does.

Urjanet, whose name is derived from the Sanskrit word for energy, expects to reach profitability in 2014. The company, founded in 2010, raised about $2.2 million last year.

The subscription-based service delivers data such as electricity and natural gas billing, demand, consumption, history, tariffs and rate plans, weather data, and carbon intensity. Armed with that information, clients can better manage and monitor their energy consumption. Urjanet has proprietary technology that is able to connect to more than 600 utilities, and other data sources.